Rotary fan for automotive vehicles



E.. VAN TOFF ROTARY FAN FOR AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLES Filed Jan. 14 1922 2Shuts-Sheet 1 5422M ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST VA N 'IOFF, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ROTARY FAN FOR AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLES.

Application filed. January 14, 1922.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST citizen of the United States, of the city ofChicago, in Cook and State of Illinois,

VAN Torr, a and a resident the county of have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Rotary Fans for Automotive Vehicles, of

which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in rotary fans for coolinginternal combustion engines,

with fly wheels distantly as distinguished from fans designed to be usedas a fly engines.

the shafts for which are provided located from their particularly wheelfor said The object of my invention is to provide the usual fly wheel ofan engine with a fan surrounding and mounted upon said heat from thewheel for transmitting the fly engine and directing it in a planesubstantially parallel to the axis of the Another object is to providefan.

a means for reducing to a minimum, as nearly as may be,

the resistance of r passage of the hot air curr also for reducing engineand durlng and losses of the air charge of the air engine; in otherwords, a

the cooling fan to the cuts from the the volumetric after the disby thefan from the means unobstructedly directing the heated air currents fromthe engine to the fan fan in a plane substantially the axis of the fanfor and from the parallel with thereby accordingly reducing any pressureof the air otherwise tending to retard the movement of the fan.

With these ends in view,

my invention finds embodiment in certain features of novelty in theconstruction,

combination and arrangement of parts by which the said objects andcertain other all as hereinafter fully objects are attained, describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings and now particularly pointedout in the claims.

In said drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective motive vehicle, with partsdisclosing the supporting a housing for the fan.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vie deta

W of an autooken away for frame providlng il vertical section throughthe fly-wheel and the fan, for

illustrating the latter and the for.

housing there- Serial No. 529,132.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 4t.

Fig. 4; is a top plan view portion of the vehicle.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section taken on the line 55 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 3.

Similar characters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawing.

In carrying out my invention, the frame for supporting the body 7 of thevehicle consists (see Fig. 1) of side bars 8, 8 and a cross-bar 9, (seeFig. 3), which side bars, at their forward ends, are bolted to a frame10, constituting the front end of the frame of the vehicle, which frame10 is bent from a metal plate to form side bars 11, 11, connected attheir forward ends by a cross-bar 12, and which, for strength, form achannel beam in cross-section, from which plate is also bent a two-parthousing 13, for a fan, the vanes of which are secured to the flywheelfor the engine, said housing being provided with projecting segmentalflanges 14 and radially with flanges 15 secured together by means ofbolts or rivets 16.

This metallic frame (see Fig. at) constitutes the support for the engine13 located and secured thereto by means of brackets 1 1 as heretofore,and for the transmission 15 of the vehicle by means of brackets 16 thebolts 17 for which pass through the wooden side bars 8 and the side bars11, 11 of the metal frame, the wooden side bars being confined betweenthe flanges thereof.

The metallic frame (see Fig. 1) is supported on the front axle 18 of thevehicle, as shown, by means of springs 19, indicated by dotted lines,connected with the frame by means of depending hangers 2O rivetedthereto, and the body of the vehicle by means of springs 21, secured atone end to a shaft- 22, having its hearings in hangers 23 at each endthereof, which springs 21 are secured of the front 'as usual, at theirother end, to the rear axle through a shoulder 28 34, between which andthe hub is an annular ly' by bolts 56 and-56 opening or passage 35, thetwo rings being connected by means of vanes 36 located at frequentintervals of each other, as indicated in Fig. 6, and at such an anglewith reference to the periphery of the rings that the vanes will operateto suckthe air from the engine and discharge it through the continuouscircular opening between the edges of the rings, of which the rear ring33 curves inwardly and the front ring 34, outwardly.

The form of the vanes, as shown in Fig. 3, is-approximately that of'thetruncated sector of a circle, but may have other form, as, for instance,as shown in Fig. 2, wherein a rectangular vane is confined between flatportions of both rings, but when the front and rear rings extend at anangle, the form of the Vane is polygonali For partially closing thefront end of the housing and inducing the passage of the heated airdirectlyfrom the engine into the fan housing, there is secured to theflange 14L ofthe housing, by means of screws or rivets 37 (see Fig. 3) acollector 38 in'the form ofan approximately truncated cone, thetruncated end of which is mounted upon a post 39 to which it is securedby means of a screw 40, which post projects from the upper crank case,the lower edge of the collector being secured directly to the lowercrank case e1 by'means of bolts 42. I

Bolted to the usual bell 43 '(seeFig. 6) of the transmission housing andto the rear flange of the fan housing are angle plates la,- and to theside bars of the frame, angle plates 45 for centering and stiffening thehousing, but any other means suitable for these purposes may beemployed.

The vehicle .is provided with the usual sheet metal hood 46, floor 47,foot board 48, dash-board 4-9, and drip pan 50, which pan is secured tothe forward end of the frame and to the fan housing by bolts 51, 51, atsuitable intervals of each other.

Closing the space between the rear end portion of the pan 'andthe floor47 of the vehicle is an approximately semicircular register 52, theinneredge of the fixed perforatedplate'53 (see'Fig. 3) for which is securedto-the usual transmission housing fi l'by bolts 55, to'the drip pan bybolts 56, at suitable intervals for that purpose, and to the'floor andsides of the body, respective (see Fig. 5).

To the fixed plate- 53 are also secured,

ad aent the upper edge" thereof, by the venience of operation, isconnected by a link 59 with a rod 60, projecting upwardly through thefloor of the vehicle and connected at its upper end with an eye-bolt 61,

passing through an elongated slot 62 (see Fig. 5) in a slotted plate 63of a register device, between which plate and the floor of the vehicleis the slotted, sliding'plate of the register 64, to which the eye-bolt61' is fixed. The fixed grid 63 (see Fig. 5) is also provided with anelongatedslot 65, through which projects a post'66, which is secured tothe sliding grid 6% and'provided at'its outer end with a handle 67,whereby the driver may open or close and adjust the register, to which,through a suitable-013cm ing in the floor, the heated air may freelyascend into the body. of the vehicle for supplying heatto the occupant.

In short, the register 52 is not only adapted for wholly or partlyutilizing the hot air currents from the engine for supplying heat to theoccupant of the vehicle, but for vary ing the quantityrof the heated airfrom the 5 engine induced and distributed bythe'fan, and which it isdesirable to vary to accord with the extremes of the surrounding atmosphere; as, for example, when extremely hot, the hot air should be freelydrawn from the engine and from the machine. On the other hand, whenvery: cold, such a. rapid discharge of the heated air from the enginebeing unnecessary, it'is their desirable to utilize as much hot air aspossible for heating the occupant of the vehicle.

It isnow' to be observed that the foot board 4:6 is pro-vid'ed'on itsunder-sideflwith a bathe-plate 69,.spaced from thefoot-boardatits'bottom edgevbyfa transverse bar and intermediate "its length byblocks 71, the side edges of the balileplate being provided with a.flange (not shown) secured to the body of the vehicle. The'func-tion' ofthe baffle-plate 69' is 'to' insulate the foot-board -l8'from the hotair directed by the fan for the greater comfort of the driver and alsoto discharge any-heat that may accumulate between the bafl'l'e-plate andthe foot board and whichis accomplished by means of perforations 7 2through the[dash-board 1 19.

In conclusion it is to be noted that, in

tion and support for the-fan, the rightis reserved to file a divisionalapplication containing claims for other novel features here in describedand shown in the drawings;

Having described my invention, what I claim anddesire, to secure'byLettersPa-tent 1S confining the claims herein tothe construc- 1. Adevice for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, surrounding front and rear rings therefor, one of which isdetaclrably secured to the fiy-wheel, fan vanes connecting said ringstogether at intervals thereof, said front ring being bent todeflecttowards the axis of the fan the air currents discharging therefrom.

A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, a fan, front and rear rings surrounding the fan detachab-lymounted upon the fly-wheel, said rings being bent to provide an out-'wardly curved passage adapted to direct said air to and discharge itfrom the fan in a plane approximately parallel with the axis of thefly-wheel.

3. A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, a fan, front and rear rings therefor, wanes connecting therings at spaced intervals, said front ring being provided with anopening forming an annular passage surrounding the fly-wheel throughwhich air currents are directed between the anes of the fan.

i. A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, and a fan, including front and rear rings surrounding thefly-wheel, said rear ring being rigidly secured to the fly-wheel, vanesconnecting said rings adapted to suspend the front ring from the rearring, said front ring being provided with an opening forming an annularpassage surrounding the flywheel for conducting the air currentsdirectly into the fan, both of said rings being curved towards eachother and thereby adapted to enclose discharging from the fan in adirection approximately axial to the fiy-wheel.

A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, and a fan, including spaced curved rings surrounding anddetachably secured to the flywheel, connected at frequent intervals ofeach other by the vanes or having an opening the fan, said front ringproviding an annular space surrounding the fly-wheel, throu h which aircurrents are conducted direct ly into the fan and are thence dischargedaxially therefrom between said rings at an angle with reference to thesides of the fan.

6. A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, a fan, including front and rear rings mounted upon andsurrounding the fly-wheel, and a rearwardly diverging housing adjacentto and surrounding said fan and rings.

7 A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, a fan, including front and rear rings mounted upon thefly-wheel, a housing surrounding said fan, and a fixed collector opposedto and projecting forward from said front ring.

8. A device for the purposes described, comprising in combination afly-wheel, a fan including front and rear rings mounted upon thefly-wheel, a conical housing adjacent to and surrounding said fan andrings, and a fixed warped surface collector opposing and projectingforward from said front ring.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 12th day of January,1922.

ERNEST VAN TOFF.

and direct air currents i

